Ruffle former

ABSTRACT

A fabric press is a generally circular or square mold to receive a moist piece of fabric for drying. A plurality of ridges and valleys make the mold ruffle-shaped to receive, dry and press a moist piece of fabric.

United States Patent 1 Penland RUFFLE FORMER {76] Inventor: Alice M. Fenland, 433 Pennsylvania,

Wichita, Kans. 67214 [22] Filed: May 17, 1971 21 Appl. No.: 143,885

[52] US. Cl. 223/35 [51] Int. Cl. A4lh 43/00, D06j 1/00 [58] Field of Search 93/60; 223/7, 28,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Burks 223/35 {45] July 17, 1973 Primary Examiner-George V. Larkin Attorney.lohn H. Widdowson [57] ABSTRACT A fabric press is a generally circular or square mold to receive a moist piece of fabric for drying. A plurality of ridges and valleys make the mold ruffle-shaped to receive, dry and press a moist piece of fabric.

1 Claim, 4 Drawing Figures Patented July 17,1973 3,746,219

wm-wrae 41/65 M. PEA/LflA/O RUFFLE FORMER Numerous devices are known in the prior art to shape or press cloth and linen, or the like and form it into ruffles or into other shapes. These prior art devices are limtied in usage and are not operable to easily shape a conventional style ruffled doily to the usual ruffled shape. Heretofore ruffled doilies have been washed then tediously ironed by hand in order to shape them properly circumferentially and to give them the attractive and desired ruffled appearance. The hand ironing of ruffled doilies is a very time-consuming task which must be done with much skill or the doily will not have the attractive ruffled shape.

In one preferred embodiment of this invention, a ruffled doily press includes a unitary structural member having a surface to receive a moist doily thereon for drying to a ruffled appearance. The doily press has a flat center portion and a ruffled outer portion so as to shape a ruffled doily with a flat center and ruffled outer edges as it dried in place on the surface. The doily press is preferably constructed of a material that will resist moisture, starches or whatever that a doily may be treated with prior to drying.

One object of this invention is to overcome the aforementioned disadvantages of the prior art devices.

Another object of this invention is to provide a ruffled doily press to form conventionally styled ruffled doilies to their desired attractive ruffled shape as they are drying after being moistened.

Yet another object of this invention is to provide a ruffled doily press which will accurately form conventionally styled ruffled doilies in a uniform and attractive ruffled shape.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a rufiled doily press that is economical to manufacture, simple to use and that can be used repeatedly.

Various other objects, advantages, and features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following discussion, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a ruffled doily press taken from above wiht a portion of a doily shown on the outer ruffled portion thereof;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the ruffled doily press;

FIG. 3 is a side elevation view of the ruffled doily press shown resting on a supporting surface; and

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectioanl view of the ruffled doily press taken on line 4-4 of FIG. 2.

The following is a discussion and description of preferred specific embodiments of the ruffled doily press of this invention, such being made with reference to the drawings, whereupon the same reference numerals are used to indicate the same or similar parts and/or structure. It is to be understood that such discussion and description is not to unduly limit the scope of the inventlon.

Referring to the drawings in detail and in particular to FIG. I, a ruffled doily press of this invention, indicated generally at 10, is shown with a segment of a doily 12 in place thereon. The doily press includes a center portion 14 and a ruffled outer portion 16, it is adapted to rest on a supporting surface with a doily in drying position on it.

Te ruffled doily press 10 is a unitary structure having the center portion 14 integral with the outer portion 16. As can be seen in FIG. I, the center portion 14 is substantially flat and the outer portion has a plurality of similar upward extending ruffles l8 diverging outward from the center portion 14. Ruffles 18 have a trough 20 with their bottom in the same plane as the center portion 14. Sides of the rullfes 18 extend upward from the trough 20 in a smooth curvature to an apex 22. The center portion 14 and trough portions 20 of the ruffles l8 serve to support the doily press 10 on a supporting surface 26 as shown in FIG. 3. It has been found advantageous to construct the doily press 10 with the rufi'les 18 extending upward because that position nearly approximates the usual resting position of a ruffled doily.

The ruffles l8 diverge outward and upward uniformaly from the center portion 14 and have a smooth contour as can be seen in the figures of the drawings. The preferred relative positions of the rufiles can be seen in FIG. 2 as shown by the solid lines distinguishing the center portion 14 from the outer portion 16 and the apex 22 of the ruffles from the troughs 24. Transition from the flat center portion 14 to the divergent portion of the rufile 18 is preferably a smooth curve as can be seen in FIG. 4. The upper surface 28 of the doily press is preferably relatively smooth. The smooth contours of the doily press 10 are necessary in order to smoothly and accurately shape a doily when placed on it. The smooth contours allow a moist doily to be easily put on the upper surface 28 in a drying position.

The doily press 10 of this invention is shown inthe drawings as constructed in a generally circular form with a circular center portion 14 and circular outer portion 16 and with twenty (20) ruffle forms. It is to be understood that the ruffled doily press can also be constructed in a noncircular shape such as rectangular, hexagonal, etc., and can be constructed with any plurality of rufile forms. Many ruffled doilies are hand made and are made to many shapes other than circular as the one shown in FIG. 1. Te circular doily press is shown as a convenient and typical illustration and is not intended to unduly limit the scope of this invention- In the use of the doily press 10 of this invention it is placed on a supporting surface or held in position so the center portion 14 and ruffle troughs 20 are generally level; this positions the ruffles 18 uniformly upward. With the doily press in position a moist doily can be placed on the upper surface 28 and smoothed by hand to a drying position so it will conform to the contour of the surface 28. Placing of the doily 12 on the surface 28 should be with the surface upward which will ultimately be upward. Positioning the doily 12 on the doily press with the ultimately upper side upward has been found to prevent the doily from having a flat heavily ironed appearance when dry. The doily 12 can be moist with water as it would be after washing or can be dampened witha starch solution or other liquids used to stiffen the cloth when dried. Once the doily I2 is in the drying position, the doily press I0 can he set aside in a place where the doily I2 can dry on it. When the doily 12 has dried, it can be easily peeled and lifted from the surface 28 of the doily press 10 and will have an attractive ruffled shape.

In the manufacture of the ruffled doily press 10 of this invention, it is obvious that it can be constructed of a single sheet of material which is sufficient to support a doily in a rigid position for drying and will be resistive to moisture and stiffening agents.

In the use of the ruffled doily-press 10 of this invention, it is seen that it provides a rigid structure on which a moist doily can be placed for drying. The shape of the V ruffled doily press is such that once a doily is dried on it and removed the doily has an attractive ruffled appearance.

As will be apparent from the foregoing description of 5 the applicants ruffled doily press, relatively inexpensive means have been provided to readily dry and shape a conventionally styled ruffled doily into an attractive and uniformly ruffled shape. Te ruffled doily press is economical to manufacture, simple to use, attractive in appearance and may be used repeatedly to dry and shape ruffled doilies.

hile the invention has been described in conjunction with preferred specific embodiments thereof, it will be understood that this description is intended to illustrate assume the shaped contour of said device.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFKQE CERTIFICATE CF CQRRECTEUN Patent No. 3,'ZL 6,219 D te July 17, 1973 InventOr(S) Alice M. Fenland It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Column 1, line 1;, "limtied should read limited line 20, "dried" should read dries line hZ, "wiht" should read with line A7, "sectioanl" should read sectional line 6L "Te" should read -.v The Column 2, line h, rullfes should read ruffles line 37, "Te" should read The line 5h, "witha'? should read with a Column 3, line 9, "to" should read The line 13, "hile" should read While Column LL, line ll, after doil'y", first occurrence, insert shaping Signed and sealed this 19th day of March 19%..

' (SEAL) Attest:

EDWARD MQFLETCHERJR. C. MARSHALL DANN Attesting Officer Commissioner of Patents FORM PC4050 (10459) USCOMM-DC 60376-P69 fi' U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICEi '99 0-356-334, 

1. A doily shaping or ruffling device, comprising: a. a flat, horizontal central disc portion normally lying in a horizontal plane, and b. an outer peripheral portion extending outwardly from said disc portion having a plurality of radially outwardly upwardly sloping alternate ridges and valleys, said central disc portion and the valley bottoms lying in one horizontal plane, said doily or ruffling device constructed and adapted to have a round doily pressed firmly thereon and have same assume the shaped contour of said device. 